Susan Morée talks to Nick Seibel, editor and publisher of Silver City Daily Press. Here is a transcript of their conversation.
Nick Seibel:
So, it's the 51st Grant County Day in Santa Fe. It's the Grant County Prospectors, which is where the advocacy group for Grant County organizes this every year. So, this is the day Grant County heads up, and we published a special edition of the newspaper for it. And that came out on Tuesday.
Susan Morée
What might Grant County residents expect from it?
Nick Seibel:
Basically, the way it works is obviously representatives of the Prospectors, leaders of the community, they meet with the governor at a certain point during Grant County Day. But most of the day is taken up with meetings with cabinet secretaries that, you know, have business that impacts Grant County. And it's an opportunity for the Prospectors and leaders in those segments of the community to really present their concerns and opportunities where state government interfaces with Grant County. It's also an opportunity to showcase the community. The Daily Press, you know, that special edition that we do every year, is a huge deal for us. It's about a 40-page newspaper this year, and it's an opportunity not only to, again, showcase those legislative priorities, but to showcase the community as a whole.
Susan Morée
And what would you say are some of the top issues that might come up during Grant County Day?
Nick Seibel:
The big focus is roads. That's popular for a lot of communities around the state. But as we've talked about recently, the widening of US 180 between Silver City and Deming to be four lanes has been a priority for the Grant County community for decades now. And so, the highway bonds bill, that's going through the legislature. It passed the Senate last week. It's now in the House. It is a priority for Grant County because that will include funding for at least the second phase of the U.S. 180 widenings. But lots of opportunities, lots of things that the Prospectors are really advocating this for. And it's really just a chance to talk about some of the issues that are maybe unique to southwestern Mexico.
Susan Morée
Any highlights of what that might be?
Nick Seibel:
We had a whole suite of stories produced by our reporters. So, they're things like, an important priority for folks from a lot of rural communities are what are called GRO funds. GRO stands for Government Results and Opportunity Funds. For years, the legislature had what was called the Junior Bill, in years when there was a lot of funding. And that was basically just sort of extra appropriation, sort of pork barrel spending for communities that was designated by legislators. And there was a lot of concern about transparency for some of those projects. So, they got revamped a few years ago into what's called the GRO Fund, which legislators help direct, but goes through the Council of Governments and gets directed to governments and nonprofits. And so, we had a story in the Tuesday Grand County Day edition that talked about sort of the impacts of that spending and how really useful it is, particularly to nonprofits that are doing big projects but can't necessarily get funded for things like their administrative costs. Also, to have money on hand for,for instance, we talked to a nonprofit that does work with food and they had a freezer go out and it was a sort of last-minute expense, and because they had this GROfunding available to them, they could use that in a pinch and it really sort of saved the day there. So that's something that the prospectors and a lot of folks in rural communities are advocating for this year in the legislature. We also have stories on behavioral health funding, stories on the regional water project that Grant County has underway. There's a whole lot in the Grant County Day Edition that came out yesterday, and all of it and a whole lot more things that Grant County is looking to get some movement on in Santa Fe today.
Susan Morée
Okay, and where can readers find this special edition?
Nick Seibel:
You can find an E-edition for subscribers online at scdailypress.com, as well as all of those locally produced stories, which are available to you free. So you can get up to speed on the big issues of Grant County Day anytime.
Susan Morée
All right. Thanks, Nick.
Nick Seibel:
Have a great one.
